Forgiveness for a suicide bomber

This is essentially old news. But some of us may have already heard that Harmid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan has pardoned a 14-year old would-be suicide bomber. (Just knowing the age of the boy makes me sick)

Politics aside, it’s wonderful when there is a public display of forgiveness in the midst of cries for blood and mindless revenge. And from a national leader no less.

The President was warm and congenial towards the teenager and even gave him $2000 to send him off his way to Pakistan, where he was from. Both father and son attended the pardoning ceremony.

What this shows, is the extreme hollowness and shallowness that the Taliban are. What President Karzai has shown is that one can stare in the face of terror and forgive. It exposes the Taliban’s war against the nation for what it is, nothing more than a power grab masquerading as a Muslim struggle. Theirs is not the religion that is Islam, it is (or has descended to) a tribal belief with AK-47s.

And to think that there are some people who actually sympathize with them and hope to emulate their so called Jihad.

But from another angle, I can say with confidence that President Karzai has also put the US warmongers and their hypocritical detractors to shame. If Bush is fighting a war against terror, Karzai’s overtures to the misguided 14 year old boy has won it. And if one thinks that getting out of Iraq solves problems, Karzai’s actions has shown that it is forgiveness that is the real solution.

(Context: I exchanged some emails with Alwyn Lau concerning the PSA(Penal Substitutionary Atonement) and related stuff on forgiveness. I thought this would add flavour to the discussion.)

A harsh assesment of South-East Asian economies(Yes, that includes Singapore and Malaysia)

The following article is worth a read. While many of us may not bat an eyelid with the less than stellar appraisal of Malaysia, some of us will be surprised that Singapore is not that much better too.

From 1993—when the first significant international portfolio investments came into Southeast Asian bourses—to the end of 2006, total dollar returns with dividends reinvested in Thailand and the Philippines were actually negative. Returns in Indonesia and Malaysia were worse than leaving money in a London bank account. Singapore produced less than half the gain of the London or New York markets, with which only Hong Kong was comparable.

I wonder how some of us would feel about that boldfaced quotations?

(Via:Tomorrow.sg)